ISSUES OF CONCERN TO ROTUMANS ABROAD: A VIEW FROM THE ROTUMA WEBSITE
2012; Brigham Young University Hawaii; Volume: 35; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0275-3596
Autores Tópico(s)Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
ResumoTHE ISLAND OF ROTUMA is relatively remote, located 465 kilometers north of the northernmost island in the Fiji group, and only slightly closer to Futuna, its nearest neighbor. Rotuma has been politically affiliated with Fiji for more than a century, first as a British colony follOwing cession in 1881 and since 1970 as part of the independent nation. Rotuma's people are, however, culturally and linguistically distinct, having strong historic relationships with Polynesian islands to the east, especially Tonga, Samoa, and Futuna. Today, approximately 85 percent of those who identifY themselves as Rotuman or part-Rotuman live overseas, mostly on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji, but with substantial numbers in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, and England. Although this article is based primarily on po stings from the Rotuma Website, which was created by Alan Howard in 1996, it is informed by research begun by Alan in 1959 over a two-year period on the island of Rotuma and among Rotumims in Fiji. Jan's first visit was in 1987, and we have returned ten times since then for periods ranging from a week to six months. For the past two decades, we have also made multiple visits to all the major overseas Rotuman communities in addition to keeping in touch with Rotuman friends from around the globe via home visits, telephone, e-mail, and, most recently, Facebook. Over the years, we have published a number of articles concerning the Rotuman diaspora and Rotuman communities abroad (Howard 1961; Howard and Howard 1977; Howard
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